Waters reveals flawed dope test

Daniel Lane

FORMER heavyweight boxing champion Dean Waters revealed despite Australia's tough stance on drugs in sport he did an illegal urine sample to allow for a fighter involved in a world-title bout to pass a doping test.

Waters, 49, has an understanding of the drug world through his job as a doorman on several nightclubs in Sydney and on the central coast.

He told Fairfax Media of the illegal urine test days before the authorities announced on Thursday they had completed a year-long investigation into the extent of drug use in Australia's professional sporting community and the ties to criminal networks because it disgusted him to think boxing remained the red-light district of sport.

''The fighter couldn't urinate, he'd waited a long time to pass water, so I did the test for him when the doctor left the room,'' he said. ''It shouldn't have been possible, especially because the authorities were saying it was so strict and well supervised, but we got away with it easily enough. It told me that drug tests and the procedure are flawed.''

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As the eldest member of the famous fighting Waters clan of the 1980s and '90s, his brothers Troy and Guy were both world No.1-ranked boxers, Waters stressed neither sibling took drugs while he added his stories did not involve former world champion Jeff Fenech.

"People will make assumptions and I want to rule out both my brothers and Jeff Fenech from the outset," Waters said. "However, on three separate occasions I've seen with my own eyes guys take anabolic steroids and methamphetamines before fights.

''Meth gives a user super-human strength, incredible aggression and a belief you're invincible. It's a good mindset for a fighter.

"I saw a world title fight a few years back and the fighter was on meth … his trainer told me so … but, what happened was he took too much and his hands couldn't keep up with his brain."

Waters, who was found guilty of shooting dead his stepmother's lover Allan Hall in 1988 but was allowed to walk free because the jury believed he was under the spell of his tyrannical father, Ces, after they heard about the brutality he and his siblings were exposed to, said he could not believe he got away with providing a urine sample for a world title fight.

"It was before I got caught up in drugs [after the shooting] to mask an ugly truth, but the question has to be asked how could I get away with taking a drug test for someone else?'' he said. ''Things hadn't improved because I was in the dressing room for a fighter from overseas when he fought in Sydney and he was allowed, by the doctor, to provide the sample from behind a locked cubicle door where he was unsupervised.

"How does that happen? If you ask the boxing authorities they'll tell you protocols are observed - the doctor watches the fighter pass urine, he collects it and bags it - but I think it is fair to ask, are they?''

Boxing's hall of shame for drug use includes some of the sport's biggest names with Roy Jones Jr, Antonio Tarver, James Toney, Francois Botha and Gianfranco Rosi at the head of a long list of fighters who'd failed drug tests.

Rosi, the Italian junior middleweight IBF champion, was stripped of his title for using amphetamines not long after he defeated Troy Waters in 1989.

Waters stressed while he believed it was only a small percentage of local fighters who took drugs, some of Australia's biggest names have battled with drugs including Lester Ellis, Shannan Taylor and Paul Briggs. Taylor almost died after over-dosing.

Waters added it was a terrible blow to boxing's credibility that two of the sport's best exponents, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, would not meet in the ring because they could not agree on the drug-testing protocol.

"The fact they're throwing insults at each other about drugs and neither will agree to the testing they want to do, says a lot,'' Waters said.

However, Waters, who fought for the Commonwealth title, made a stunning confession when he said knowing what drugs could do for a fighter he would consider using them if he had his time over.

"If I had known what I knew years after I finished with drugs, and boxing, I would have taken them during my career, absolutely,'' he said. ''I would have to stay one step ahead. I never, ever took drugs when I fought, my brothers didn't do that stuff, but if I'd known what I know now I think I would have done it.

"I don't know if any of my opponents were on drugs, I couldn't tell you because back then I was a straight-shooter; didn't drink alcohol and didn't do drugs. I wouldn't have thought my opponents would even do it, so I was naive. When I left home and went to Melbourne it opened a new world to me.''